Clever retail thinking for the digital age

Happy Valentines Day!

Last year, I wrote a blog post about some of my favourite Christmas digital marketing campaigns from fashion retailers. With the recent build up to Valentine’s Day, I spotted some really innovative digital marketing campaigns from various brands and I thought I’d once again share a couple of my favourites on the Froggblog…

Not On the High Street #LoveYourStory

Not On The High Street have produced a very cute digital campaign celebrating real and everyday love stories. They asked nine couples to share the story of their relationship on film and these videos are featured on their website and across their social media channels.

Using the hashtag #loveyourstory, the brand has encouraged consumers to also tweet their love stories which have created a real buzz around the campaign. The brand has also created a bespoke webpage for the campaign which also features inspiring gifts, quizzes and other valentine’s day content such as wrapping inspiration, date ideas and quotes from the couples. It draws attention to their products but in subtle way.

Ann Summers #HappyAnnSummersDay

Here’s another rather cheeky guerrilla marketing campaign from lingerie brand, Ann Summers, who must have annoyed their competitors when they projected mischievous messages onto their store fronts.

Shops such as Thorntons and Liberty’s fell victim to Ann Summers and have had messages such as ‘Chocolates are for hospitals’ and ‘Roses belong in the Eighties’ projected onto their shop fronts alongside the slogan ‘Happy Ann Summers Day.’ They’ve also sprayed the messages onto London pavements and encouraged consumers to tweet @Ann_Summers with the hashtag #AnnSummersDay.

Virgin #EverydayValentine

This campaign from Virgin celebrates the idea of an ‘Everyday Valentine,’ which they describe as being anyone from a childhood chum, favourite food or even a pet. They’ve asked consumers to send them a picture via Twitter, Instagram or Vine of their #EverydayValentine with the aim to win prizes such as a dinner for two or customised chocolates. The best responses are also featured on the Virgin website throughout the week.

Evian #ILoveYouLike

Mineral water brand Evian is helping consumers avoid typical Valentine’s Day clichés with its #ILoveYouLike multi-channel campaign which pushes their ‘Live Young’ philosophy.

In the run up to Valentines Day, consumers who tweet @evianwater or @evian_uk using the hashtag #ILoveYouLike will receive a response with an image depicting an alternative Valentine’s message. Fans are then encouraged to share suggestions on how to complete the sentence ‘I love you like’ on Facebook in order to win special Valentine’s Day prizes.

According to Clickz, this campaign has already notched up an impressive 87,000 impressions in the week before the campaign launched and 1.2 million estimated impressions in its first 48 hours as a result of about 200 Twitter messages.

Ted Baker #FollowTedsHeart

I spotted this campaign earlier in the week on Ted Baker’s Facebook page. They’ve created a digital ‘FollowTedsHeart’ Facebook app campaign to increase engagement with their fans and compliment their in store activities.

The app lets users release virtual balloons around the globe in a bid to win a shopping spree and features really lovely visuals of the balloon flying across the world as it’s released. It’s nicely executed but I was pretty disappointed that my balloon only traveled 3557.55 miles to Washington putting me in 4151st place.

Heineken #DateInABox

Last but not least, a campaign aimed at the boys from Heineken. The beer brand has launched a #DateInABox social media campaign which consists of an actual box containing an adventurous, prearranged mystery date ranging from a jujitsu lesson for two to a couples’ tattoo session. To get this date, women can tweet to @Heinken_US and have a box mailed to their partner but he can only unlock it if he embarrasses himself and shares his feelings of love on Instagram with the photo of the box.